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Friday, February 17, 2017

Why Washington's Anti-Regulation Agenda Will Hurt the Economy - Ceres

The president and congressional leaders are fixated on demolishing public health, safety and environmental regulations, but these efforts make little practical — or economic — sense.Of particular concern is, first, the president’s "two-for-one" executive order requiring two federal regulations to be deleted for every one issued. The second is efforts by Congress to pass regulatory reform legislation that substantially would curb consideration of how the public would benefit under proposed rules.There are many reasons to criticize this double-barrel regulatory assault. The biggest is broad economic harm to the American public and local communities because of weaker clean air, water and public health protections. Rules on coal-mining runoff and methane and power plant pollution already are on the chopping block. The effort also will be harmful to substantial swaths of the U.S. business community who are clamoring for regulatory certainty on key issues such as climate change and clean energy policy."The cost of doing business without a national carbon mitigation strategy subjects companies to undesirable risks," wrote candy giant Mars Inc. and software firm Adobe, in a legal brief filed last year supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, aimed at cutting carbon pollution from U.S. power plants.Mars and Adobe are among dozens of major U.S. companies that have committed to using 100 percent renewable energy to power all their operations. Rather than dealing with state-by-state patchwork quilt energy policies, they would prefer a holistic national solution for tackling climate change and securing the green power they need for their facilities across the country.The president likes to say that environmental regulations stifle economic growth and kill jobs. The truth is the opposite. While no regulations are perfect, federal environmental protections have, time and time again, provided enormous benefits for the American public and the broader economy. Consider the example of the EPA and the Clean Air Act — two of the administration’s favorite punching bags.Read more at Why Washington's Anti-Regulation Agenda Will Hurt the Economy